Lifelong naturalist helped save trees in Big Thicket

Howard Peacock was described as a well-informed, opinionated man who’d be a friend for life.

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Howard Peacock

Born: July 12, 1925, Beaumont

Died: April 22, 2012, San Antonio

Services: A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. May 12 at Madison Square Presbyterian Church, 319 Camden St.

The Big Thicket National Preserve exists in East Texas thanks in part to Howard Peacock, a lifelong naturalist who fought timber companies and was part of a movement to conserve the land for future generations.

He was also a noted journalist, eco-activist and protector of Texas trees.

Peacock died Sunday after a long illness. He was 86.

He began his writing career at the Beaumont Journal after serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II loading ammunition on ships in the Pacific. When he returned home, he married Kitty Galiano.

Peacock never used a computer. He used a 1949 Royal typewriter and later an IBM Selectric, but there was always a pencil and Big Chief tablet nearby.

In 1963, he helped create the Texas Bill of Rights Foundation, a Houston forum where public figures could offer dissenting opinions on topics of the day. The foundation produced “Ideas in Focus,” a television program that featured personalities such as Robert Kennedy, Richard Nixon and former San Antonio Express-News columnist Maury Maverick.

In 1976, Peacock left city life behind, settling in the East Texas town of Woodville, where he devoted his time to the Save the Big Thicket of Southeast Texas movement.

He's one of the activists whose public battle helped save 86,000 acres in East Texas, where his interest in nature bloomed when he was a Cub Scout camping among the pines and bottomlands.

From 1975 to 1976, he served as president of the association and wrote articles and several books about the land.

His close friend in Austin, Pam Turner, had lunch with Peacock every Wednesday.

“He kept his finger on what was going on in the world and was quite opinionated,” she said. “He was the kind of friend you kept for life.”

His friend David Lodge said Peacock “appreciated the magnificence of the world.”

“Howard was a scintillating star in the human universe. He's winked out and now he's out searching through the next beyond.”

After his wife's death in 2001, Peacock moved to San Antonio.

In an article written by Christopher Cook in the March 2001 issue of Texas Co-op Power, Peacock called his involvement in saving the thicket as “one of the best times of my life.”

In later years he said he always tried to forget the names of flowers, birds and trees — they got in the way of enjoying their existence.